Al-Hilal president reveals the real reason Cristiano Ronaldo’s Manchester United exit broke down

Al-Hilal have confirmed they were the previously unnamed Saudi Arabian club who made a mammoth offer to prise Cristiano Ronaldo away from Manchester United during the summer.

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Towards the start of the transfer window, the 37-year-old informed United’s hierarchy that he wanted to leave the club after they only managed to qualify for the Europa League, but no offers from a Champions League side materialised.

The only official bid that came in was from an unnamed Saudi team who were prepared to make Ronaldo the highest-paid player in world football.

In addition to offering the five-time Ballon d’Or winner a two-year contract worth £210million – or around £2m per week – they were also willing to pay a transfer fee of £25m, which is more than United paid Juventus just over a year ago.

However, the deal never transpired and it was initially suggested that Ronaldo snubbed the move as he still wants to continue competing at the highest level in European football.

But now Al-Hilal president Fahad ben Nafel has revealed that talks between the Saudi club and the Portuguese superstar had progressed well, but they were prevented from completing the deal due to a transfer ban.

Speaking on the Thamanya YouTube channel, he said: ‘Yes, we negotiated with Ronaldo. The problem was not in the money or the principle.

‘Al-Hilal is able to bring in the stars of the world, but it was in the decision of the Sports Arbitration Center that prevented us from registering the players.

‘We did not stop negotiating with the players despite the decision to ban, but we were delaying entering the final stage of the negotiations until the ban was lifted.’

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